Wildlife populations have shrunk by 73 per cent – and that’s bad news for you
A giraffe grazing in Lake Nakuru National park on October 5, 2022. Poachers are targeting giraffe meat which is in high demand because of its size and cultural factors.
What you need to know:
- The degradation of ecosystems will profoundly impact food security, water availability and climate resilience, all of which are vital to the livelihoods of millions of people, particularly in Africa.
Are you wondering how the planet's wildlife are fairing? The report card is out, and the outlook is largely grim. According to the latest Living Planet Report (LPR) by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), one of the largest conservation groups, and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), populations of vertebrate species, including mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians have declined by an average of 73 per cent between 1970 and 2020.
Human activity
Experts say these numbers, which put human activity at the centre of the species loss, highlight the accelerating degradation of natural ecosystems, a reality deeply felt in all regions worldwide.
“We are dangerously close to tipping points for nature loss and climate change. But we know nature can recover, given the opportunity, and we still have the chance to act,” said ZSL’s Chief Executive Matthew Gould.
The report posits that if we don’t recover, more than half of the Sustainable Development Goals targets for 2030 will be missed, and the 1.5-degree Celsius target set in the 2015 Paris Agreement will be unattainable; with temperatures increasing to almost three degrees Celsius by the end of the century. Further, the degradation of ecosystems will profoundly impact food security, water availability and climate resilience, all of which are vital to the livelihoods of millions of people, particularly in Africa.
This statistic, calculated using the Living Planet Index (LPI), tracked changes in the nearly 35,000 populations of 5,495 species over 50 years. The trends it uncovers are alarming, with freshwater species—such as fish, amphibians and other aquatic life—experiencing an 85 per cent decline globally, the heaviest decline recorded.
While the global average decline of 73 per cent is startling, it is not uniform across ecosystems. At regional levels, biodiversity in Latin America and the Caribbean staggered to a 95 per cent decline, followed by Africa with a 76 per cent decline in monitored wildlife populations, and Asia and the Pacific declined to 60 per cent.
To paint a perspective, the report notes that global tipping points would result in catastrophic consequences and “are fast approaching.” For instance, “the mass die-off of coral reefs would destroy fisheries and storm protection for hundreds of millions of people living on the coasts. The Amazon rainforest tipping point would release tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere and disrupt weather patterns around the globe.”
Notably, LPI does not track the total number of animals lost. Instead, it calculates the average change in population sizes of different species over time. For example, if a population of 1,000 animals decreases to 500, that’s a 50 per cent decline. Similarly, a smaller population of 10 animals that drops to five also reflects a 50 per cent decline. The LPI averages these percentage changes across nearly 35,000 monitored populations of 5,495 species. This means that while some populations have sharply declined, others may have remained stable or even increased, and the 73 per cent figure reflects this overall trend.
The primary drivers behind these declines are well-documented: habitat destruction, overexploitation, climate change and pollution. Agriculture is a major culprit, with the global food system accounting for 70 per cent of water use and over 25 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions.
The report shows that expanding agricultural land has led to the fragmentation of critical wildlife habitats, pushing many species to the brink of extinction. Industrial-scale livestock farming, which consumes vast tracts of land and water resources, is one of the biggest drivers of deforestation in regions like the Amazon. Africa is not immune to these pressures.
Moreover, climate change is adding an extra layer of complexity. Rising temperatures, shifting rainfall patterns and extreme weather events force species to migrate to new areas, disrupting ecosystems and making it harder for wildlife and humans to survive. According to the WWF report, ecosystems are losing their resilience to external shocks like climate change, leaving them more vulnerable to collapse.
Despite these overwhelming challenges, the report acknowledges some wins, noting that some wildlife populations have increased over the years. For instance, the number of loggerhead sea turtle nests increased by 500 per cent in Chrysochou Bay, Cyprus, between 1999 and 2015. Thanks to conservation efforts, populations of mountain gorillas in Central Africa’s Virunga Mountains have grown from 480 individuals in 2010 to more than 600.
Kenya is also making significant strides in wildlife conservation, conservationists say. Effective policies and the involvement of local communities have helped stabilise or increase populations of key species, including the critically endangered black rhino. In the 1980s, the population of black rhinos in Kenya had dwindled to just over 400 individuals due to rampant poaching. “Today, that number has rebounded to over 1,000—a milestone demonstrating conservation programmes' success,” said Jackson Kiplagat, Head of Conservation Programmes at WWF-Kenya.
According to the conservation group, the next five years will be crucial for the future of biodiversity. “We have five years, by 2030, to contribute significantly to the future of life on earth by working with all stakeholders to support the national government to deliver on its ambitious commitments to the global goals by transforming our food and energy systems, greening our finance and restoring nature in Kenya in a fair, sustainable and inclusive way.
Mohamed Awer, CEO WWF-Kenya, said: “Kenya is at the forefront of making significant contributions to fight climate change and restore nature, having committed to the Global Biodiversity Framework and the Paris Agreement, among other global and national commitments. The country’s National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans make ambitious targets present a unique opportunity to mobilise capacity and financial resources in a coordinated manner to help restore ecosystems, enhance sustainable use of biological diversity and champion fair and equitable benefits sharing.
The redoubling of the nation’s ambition to the Bonn Challenge through the 15 billion commitment to restore 10.6 million hectares of degraded landscapes is a step in the right direction. The stabilising populations of priority species offer a shimmer of hope that consistency in a truly whole-of-society approach and collaborative interventions will not only help save species from extinction but also ensure they thrive. However, if we are to stop nature loss at the scale needed to avoid global and devastating tipping points, climate finance must flow from the global level to nations most affected for their effective implementation of national commitments and action plans and to the grassroots to build the resilience of indigenous and local communities bearing the biggest brunt of nature loss and climate change.”
The release of the Living Planet Report 2024 comes just as the world gears up for COP16 on biodiversity in October 2024 in Cali, Colombia. This meeting will mark the first global gathering of nations since they reached a historic agreement to combat biodiversity loss. At COP16, countries will assess their progress towards meeting the ambitious international targets designed to halt and reverse the rapid decline of biodiversity.
